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Whole Chickens Curried

A curry made by simmering whole chickens with pork, rice, and curry powder in a spiced broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Whole Chickens Curried

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the chicken

  1. Place the whole chickens in a saucepan with pepper, salt, and pork.

  2. Cover with cold water and bring to a boil.

  3. When the chickens are half cooked, add rice and more water if needed.

  4. Continue boiling until the chickens are tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the chickens and place them on a serving dish.

  2. Mix curry powder into the gravy and stir well.

  3. Pour the gravy over the chickens before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Pork + ricetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Whole chickens
Provide the main protein, which becomes tender as it simmers in the liquid.
Rice
Added partway through cooking to thicken the gravy as its starch releases into the liquid.
Curry powder
Adds the spiced aroma and flavor that defines the gravy.
Pork
Adds savory meaty flavor to the cooking liquid, enriching the gravy.

The step that matters

Adding the rice halfway through boiling. Rice added too early can break down and turn the gravy mushy, while adding it too late leaves it undercooked and grainy. Timing it when the chicken is half cooked keeps the texture even, and extra water helps prevent it from drying out or scorching on the bottom of the pan.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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